The sixth-busiest Asian airport will install a wind-hazard detection system developed by a Louisville company.
Called the WindTracer Doppler lidar, the system will be a key part of of the windshear-alert network at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
WindTracer provides advanced warning of wind hazards by continuously scanning approach and departure flight paths, allowing air-traffic controllers to alert pilots to aircraft wake, wind shears and microbursts.
The system sends out pulses of infrared laser light that reflect off of naturally-occurring aerosol particles floating in the air. Wind moves the particles which alters the frequency of the light.
By processing the return signal from the particles, WindTracer can detect the wind speed and direction.
WindTracer systems have been used worldwide for a decade, including at airports in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Coherent Technologies, a 200-employee firm that was acquired in 2005 by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, developed the technology with the assistance of a NASA Langley Research Center business innovation research grant.
NASA scientists, working with the Federal Aviation Administration, collected acoustic signature data from the wakes of aircraft landing at Denver International Airport to learn about those characteristics. They measured the data against information provided by WindTracer.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
